A moment passed before Martin moved to react, still settling into place in time, pieces of mind. With the first breath was new life, but the second was the old...a rollercoaster rush of sensation in memory. Yet the present remained in the forefront – the awareness established, which would remain with him evermore. The contract.

He was alive as man only because Bariyan willed it to be. Life beyond the traditions of Darkov. Human. The sad boy he was not there, but boy he remained, and already his stomach began to flutter with the scope of it all. Already it was beginning to become shuttered by temporal, human senses, and the longer he looked on Bariyan, the more he took him back into account.

He was being called – hearing his own name said aloud with human ears. Another small thrill. Martin moved, taking the pair of small, tentative steps he needed to close the distance. He reached in turn, gliding careful, sometimes grasping fingers along from wrist to elbow to shoulder.

"Yes," he said, and immediately sucked in the breath after, eyes widening at the sound of his own voice. His mouth split in a startled, amazed smile as he staggered forward, flinging arms around Bariyan's shoulders.

"Here I am!"